May Be Gone, But Still Wet...

I decided to keep this blog going after returning home from my mission as a way to share some of my spiritual experiences.  I loved blogging as a missionary and I'd like to keep it up now.  Soon I may start a blog for the other aspects of my life or I will do it all on this blog.  You'll be seeing some changes to this blog soon, since I'm not an official missionary anymore.
This morning I went to the temple to do baptisms for the dead for an hour or so with my girlfriend Janell.  I just returned home from serving a mission, so I didn't have an opportunity to do that, or spend time with her in over two years.  As I sat waiting for them to invite us over to the baptistry, where baptisms for the dead take place in the temple, I studied 1 Corinthians 15.  The chapter is focused on the resurrection of Jesus Christ and how through him everyone will rise from the dead.
My grandma passed away while I was away on a mission, and coming home, I did start to miss her a little bit more again.  I know that she'll rise again though, and that is one of the reasons the Gospel is such "good news."  On my mission, I chatted online with many people who stopped living the Gospel because a family member had passed away.  Aren't those situations what the Gospel is for?   Why would anyone choose the moment they need it so much to give up on it?  The Apostle Paul shared the same idea.  "For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain; ye are yet in your sins." [1 Cor 15:16-17]
Sometimes on my mission, I wondered why Christ would have us do work like baptisms for the dead.  I've known the answer for quite some time, but it's nice to be reminded of that.  In doing ordinances for our deceased relatives, we are reminded of them and that we will get them back and be together again.  This acts as one of the ways that Christ's Church "turns the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers."

That He Lives!

It's interesting to see that what Joseph Smith thought this was most important for everyone to know  out of all the facts about Jesus Christ.  Everything else that is important about Jesus Christ stems from his victory over death.  If he had no victory over death, he'd have little power over sin.  Had he no victory, he could not have been our Savior.  However, he does still live.  His directions to living prophets and the reestablishment of his Church are an evidence of that, and they hinge on the reality of it.

Really a Plan of Happiness

Last November while I was serving as a missionary Slovenia, my mission president called me to let me know that my grandmother had died the night before.

Why do we die?

My dad explained it something like this once. God has an absolutely flawless immortal, and powerful body. As our Father in heaven he wants us to have one like that too someday. Let's say his body is like a sports car. Like a good Father, God isn't going to give his children the responsibility that goes with driving a sports car, until they've had some practice driving a "beater wagon" (much less valuable car that breaks down a lot). A good example of a beater wagon is in the photo to the right.  The body we have now is that beater wagon. God's given it to us to practice with it during for a short period of time and when that time is over we have to die. That's the only way that we can get out from behind the wheel of the beater wagon and be ready to step into a sports car.